Metallic Rattle on warm idle - 986
 

Hi All, been reading this site for sometime but never actually joined and hoping for some help....

I have a 2002 Boxster 2.7 and the car has developed an annoying metallic sounding rattle when sat at idle. I have checked the heat shields and CAT for usual rattles but no joy.

The rattle doesn't happen when the car is cold but only starts once the engine is coming up to temp and then remains until car is cools down again. The noise is also only present when the car is sat on idle, it isn't noticeable when running on the road, it may however still be there.

One final point I have noted purely by chance is that the rattle noise becomes more intense when I begin to apply lock to the steering wheel whilst the car is sat on the driveway. If I release the lock it returns to the normal rattle noise.

The engine drives as expected with no issues and temps are fine.

Any advice on parts to check out would be appreciated!

Can you make a recording of the sound and post it?

The finding about the rattle being affected by steering lock makes me wonder if it's a rattling power steering pump spline - as detailed in this post:
http://986forum.com/forums/general-discussions/61094-rattle-power-steering-pump.html